Tony Stewart News

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, led the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway by winning the pole for Sunday’s Oral-B USA 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. It was the 20th Sprint Cup pole for SHR since its inception in 2009 and the organization’s seventh this season.

Harvick turned a lap of 29.118 seconds at 190.398 mph on the 1.54-mile oval to score his 12th career Sprint Cup pole, his sixth of the season and his first at Atlanta. It was also Harvick’s second consecutive pole, as he claimed the top spot in qualifying last week at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Prior to this year, the most poles Harvick ever won in a single season were two in 2005.

Stewart sat out the past three races at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway following the tragic accident on Aug. 9 involving Kevin Ward Jr. during a sprint car feature at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park.

At 1 p.m. EDT on Friday in the infield media center at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Stewart will be available to the press, where he will be joined by Stewart-Haas Racing executive vice president Brett Frood.

In order to cover this event, media must be credentialed by Atlanta Motor Speedway. Credential requests should be e-mailed to Dustin Bixby, Atlanta Motor Speedway director of marketing and promotion, at DustinB@AtlantaMotorSpeedway.com by Friday at 10 a.m. All requests must include full name, requesting media organization, phone number and e-mail address.

“I didn’t really put a whole lap together,” said Harvick, who won at Watkins Glen in 2006. “The car was really good – just didn’t get everything out of it that I needed to get the pole. Still, it’s a solid effort by our Budweiser team and a really good starting position. From there we should be able to hopefully race up front all day.”

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Aug. 6, 2014) – Tony Stewart will be turning left and right this weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, but since this time last year, his career has come full circle.

A year ago, Stewart was absent from The Glen. His streak of consecutive starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ended at 521 when in the wee hours of Aug. 5, 2013, an accident in a sprint car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, left him with a broken right tibia and fibula.

Stewart’s season was over, and he did not return to a racecar until Feb. 14, 2014 when practice for the Sprint Unlimited began at 5 p.m. EST at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. #StandWithSmoke was the mantra upon Stewart’s return, and it’s appropriate that #StandWithSmoke reappears in Stewart’s return to Watkins Glen.

Tony Stewart will never know what might have been in the GoBowling.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, where varying pit strategies ruled the day. The driver of the No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) was collected in a multicar accident on lap 117 and was left with a 36th-place finish.

“It (the wreck) was far enough ahead of us that I never even saw how it started,” said Stewart, a two-time Sprint Cup winner at Pocono (June 2003 and June 2009). “We were just coming off of (turn) two there and somebody got sideways. They started wrecking in front of us, and we got caught up in it. I ended up on top of Paul Menard’s hood, so it wasn’t where we wanted to end up with our Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevy, by any means.”

“It was a good day for the Haas Automation team,” said Busch, a two-time Sprint Cup winner at Pocono (July 2005 and August 2007). “We were in position to get a pole. We had speed in practice and all the way through our three runs. We picked up time in our final run and we need to do more of that. We picked up speed on that last outing, but it just wasn’t enough. Guys beat us today and we ended up fourth. The Haas Automation Chevrolet was really good though. Let’s just make sure we have that balance after happy hour tomorrow.”